** Lobbying and litigating the Endangered Species Act
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Monday, October 21, 2019
The Endangered ([link removed]) Black-Footed Ferret ([link removed])

According to documents reviewed by The Guardian ([link removed]) , one of the Pacific Legal Foundation's top lawyers, Jonathan Wood, met with Interior Department Solicitor and former Koch brothers adviser Daniel Jorjani to discuss changes to the Endangered Species Act just months before the department rolled out sweeping changes to how the law would be enforced. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit firm, has received major donations from dozens of anti-conservation donors, including the Koch brothers, to lobby the Interior Department to roll back regulations such as the Endangered Species Act and other bedrock conservation laws.

In a press release, Woods and the Pacific Legal Foundation took credit ([link removed]) for Interior's recent decision to weaken the ESA, claiming the changes would help species recover. Based on recent tax records, the firm is working on more than 15 cases to weaken federal wildlife protections for numerous species on behalf of Western special interests and landowners.
Quick hits


** President Trump to nominate Dan Brouillette, former lobbyist, to be next energy secretary after Rick Perry
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New York Times ([link removed]) | Bloomberg ([link removed]) | Politico ([link removed]) | Washington Examiner ([link removed])


** Colorado public health officials release report on health effects of oil and gas development and emissions
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Colorado Public Radio ([link removed])


** Efforts to weaken BLM through headquarters move causes concern in Western states
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Nevada Public Radio ([link removed])


** The lawyers rolling back wildlife protection one species at a time
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The Guardian ([link removed])


** Recent sage-grouse ruling scrambles administration's oil and gas leasing plans
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E&E News ([link removed])


** BLM wants to make it easier for companies to request royalty cuts for certain mining operations
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** Opinion: "Allowing off-highway vehicles in Utah’s national parks is a mistake"
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High Country News ([link removed])


** Opinion: "We’re serious about greater sage-grouse conservation, and we know that science shows the best way to achieve it"
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])
Quote of the day
The use on park roads of OHVs … poses a significant risk to park resources and values which cannot be appropriately mitigated, and which cannot be sustained without causing unacceptable impacts. The use of such vehicles is, therefore, not consistent with the protection of the parks and monuments.”
—Kate Cannon, Southeast Utah Group of the National Park Service Superintendent ([link removed])
Picture this
The autumn color change of Western larch trees is a highly anticipated event here. Larix occidentalis, the Western larch, turns a luminescent yellow in the fall, lighting up slopes in golden patches. Why do they turn? Read more: glaciernps.tumblr.com ([link removed]) #ScienceFriday ([link removed]) #ParkScience ([link removed]) | @GlacierNPS ([link removed])

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